Should I stay or should I go now? - The EU Referendum Thread

[Mr Mystery]

Thatcher wasn't human - or certainly didn't show any humanity, so she doesn't count.

Don't rule Gove out. He's weasely enough and connected enough with the media to cheat his way to the top job....

I don't want him to win like, I'd far rather see him do a job he's actually qualified for. Perhaps changing toilet rolls in public lavvies - I don't think there's much he could do wrong there. But if he did, he could knacker the Tories.

[grimmas]

Yep no negotiations between the UK and EU till we exit (I suspect it could be illegal any other way). However you can bet your bottom dollar (euro) that those founder memeber have had a chat about what they want out of it.

Yep Gove has shown himself to be a bit untrustworthy and we need to consider how much he is disliked I the public (something that has got him demoted from the cabinet before) and now he's stabbed the darling of Leave in the back. No chance. It'll be one of the ladies don't forget the Tory faithful still pretty much worship Baroness Thatcher they'll be well disposed to a strong female leader with vision.

[Psychosplodge]

lols

I imagine he'd hang the paper towards the wall, the *******.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Whichever one if them gets in, we'ere f**ked.

I've got my noose ready if things get too bad.

[Mr Mystery]

I wouldn't panic too much....

The Tories simply don't have enough of a majority at present to do too much damage - have a look at the nutty ideas they've already been defeated on this term.

Now, add to that slim majority (it's 12 seats) that Leadership Ballots inevitably damage party cohesion. They all went into the General Election knowing and accepting 'Dave is our Man'. But with him offski, and an already surprising leadership contest, those splits aren't likely to heal immediately.

I understand Theresa May is hell bent on doing away with the Human Right's Act - that....that's a pretty bold move, especially when so far as I'm aware, there's nothing discussed about what could replace it. That's an act of backbench rebellion waiting to happen, and almost certainly not something the SNP, Lib Dems or Labour would ever support.

In short? Until there's another general election, I don't think we'll be seeing too much nonsense coming out of Westminster.

[grimmas]

I suspect Mystery is correct. I know Theresa May has said she won't call a general election if she get the job but I'd be surprised if they didn't she needs a solid mandate and they would be the only way to get it. Also Labour are having worse internal troubles it seems as good a time as any.

[Psychosplodge]

Even the news presenters have had enough

[url]https://twitter.com/AtIasLion/status/747552154647420930[/url]

[CoffeeGrunt]

The problem is that the current EU is mostly just the logical progression of the EEC.

You establish free trade between nations! Great, now a manufacturer of kettles in the UK wants to sell them to France and Germany, making a little more moolah. The kettles arrive and bollocks, they don't conform with French wiring colours and they're designed for the wrong frequency for Germany.

So an agreement is put in place. All domestic wiring will follow these colours, at this voltage, with this frequency. Perfect. Trade moves freely.

Ah but bollocks, another company is trying to sell a fire alarm system, but they've wired it up with Twin-and-Earth rather than MIMS. After being installed in a Dutch factory, a fire happens and it fails to go off because the wires are melted. Bollocks indeed, so the agreement is updated and MIMS becomes a necessity for any fire alarm system.

After a few of these agreements the countries decide that Jesus is it awkward making all these agreements, and no one really wants to be the country spending their taxpayer's money to hire people to write up legislation for everyone else. The cost should be distributed the same as the benefits, right?

Okay, we'll establish a central, impartial body that handles the legislation. We'll all pay into it so everyone pays equally, and benefits equally. Bueno. Over time, we give the legislative body powers to prosecute, otherwise it has no teeth. We'll also make it so countries have to comply with it, because some of them aren't and they're undercutting our market with cheap, dodgy goods.

The above is why we won't lose any bureaucracy or legislation, we'll just bring it home. So Whitehall will be full of even more pen-pushers and lawyers. Hooray.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup, and it helps to standardise product quality the world over.

Want to sell to any EU country? Gotta make sure it fits this criteria - which I believe is some of the highest in the world, yeah?

[CoffeeGrunt]

When it comes to food standards, the EU is incredibly stringent. Again, you couldn't have a shipment of German pies causing a spate of illnesses in Spain because it turned out their workers didn't follow proper hygiene procedures as the Spanish would demand. Hence why EU food preparation legislation is not only stringent and evenly-applied, but also among the highest in the world. In a lot of ways we surpass America in terms of the quality of our food.

Again, we can't throw all this out as it's incredibly important, so all we're doing is repatriating the legislation and cost to maintain and enforce it. Sure, good for our sovereignty, but anything that's exported still has to move in lockstep with EU legislation anyway. Given that others have noted that we sell a lot to the EU, that will still remain whether we're trading as In or Out.

So the only way legislation could be slackened is if products are being produced for consumption by British citizens, but I don't think it'd go down well making all the higher standard stuff for export, with the lower-grade stuff being kept for ourselves.